Column #6

Jeff Campbell

July 18, 2007

Jazz improv is a conversation

I never took a Latin class in school yet I know a few phrases, like e plurabus unium, carpe diem, and dona nobis pacem.  One Latin term that I’m particularly familiar with is ad libitum, which--roughly translated--means ‘take some liberty.’  Perhaps a more appropriate translation would be to apply some liberty; for instance, to do something in your own way. 

We see this term a lot in jazz and improvised music.  Usually it’s abbreviated to just ad lib.  But as I wrote in a column last summer, ad lib in jazz music does not mean ‘do whatever you want’ but rather ‘do what is appropriate given a specific musical context.’  In jazz music we don’t just make things up out of thin air but instead we organize instant melodies from things we already know.  Generally speaking, jazz musicians ad lib within a specific context using a specific vocabulary or set of melodic structures.  Knowing how to use the vocabulary of the music is key in the way a musician will ad lib his or her way through a given piece.

Think about this for a moment.  Imagine you’re having a pleasant conversation with a good friend.  Let’s say you’re discussing the food you had at one of the many fine eating establishments in Door County.  You say something like, “I really like the way the chef prepares the fried cheese curds at restaurant X.”  Your friend replies, “I agree, and the texture of the fried curds is just perfect.”  Both of you are ad libbing as you converse about the delicacies of fried cheese curd consumption.  But imagine if your friend ad libs outside the context of the conversation.  You say, “I really like the way the chef prepares the fried cheese curds at restaurant X.”  To which your friend replies, “Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” 

Now given the topic of cheese curds, your friend’s reply makes no sense and he or she is ad libbing out of context.  This is how it is works in jazz music.  Musician A plays a melody or phrase and musician B then responds with an appropriate improvised (ad libbed) response within the context of the vocabulary of the music.  If musician A plays a particular piece of musical vocabulary, then musician B has liberty to respond within the same musical parameters. 

Yes, good jazz music is ripe with improvisation (AD LIBBING) but the ad libbed aspect of the music should always be within the context and vocabulary of a given musical situation.  This is what we teach at Birch Creek during our Jazz and Big Band sessions.  Our students are learning to speak to each other in musical terms ad libbing vocabulary that is musically appropriate and specific to the given musical situation. 

Come see (and hear) our Birch Creek jazz students – and keep them honest – if one plays a melody about fried cheese curds, make sure the other one response appropriately – carpe diem!